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The Haunting Universe of Shadow Painter Klaus Verscheure

28 januari 2019

In blog: In the low countries

For years, Klaus Verscheure (1968) has worked as a director on many well-known Flemish television series. Lately, however, he has been making a name for himself as a visual artist, and his work has been shown in both New York and Los Angeles. His first book was recently published, entitled Black is a Color.

By Hilde Van Canneyt, translated by Astrid Vandendaele

In 1989, you graduated as an animator from the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) in Brussels. About five years after graduation, you started your career as a freelance director for various television series.

“Although I did direct a fair number of television dramas in the past, I’m currently no longer involved with that type of work. At the moment, I am focusing on completing audio-visual projects for museums. That particular segment of the market is more in line with the artistic world I live in.”

As you are expanding your artistic body of work, you often collaborate with musicians. You, for instance, joined forces with Stuart A. Staples, lead singer of indie band Tindersticks. How does someone from Belgium end up working with such a renowned musician?

“When I’m writing a screenplay, the scenes will always be accompanied by music in my head. For one particular project, I had drafted a shortlist of musicians I wanted to work with, with Nick Cave at the top of that list. It also featured both Tindersticks and Damien Rice. Asking whether Cave would want to be involved was similar to asking our Lord to come down from heaven to shake your hand. Damien Rice was interested in a collaboration, but his record label would not allow it. For these reasons, I felt encouraged to get in touch with Stuart A. Staples, and to send him my screenplay. Within a few weeks, he sent me an email. We talked on the phone, and decided to meet up. When we met, I felt an instant connection. And, as they say, the rest is history… We have collaborated on many projects, and working together has evolved into a long-standing friendship. He composed the soundtracks for the video installations I designed for the In Flanders Fields museum and C-Mine.”

Yet soon after that, you ‘cheated’ on him with singer-songwriter Tom McRae. “I had asked Stuart to compose the music for one of my own video installations,14EMOTIONS/Allegoria Via Dolorosa, but he wouldn’t start working on it until the video was finished. In the meantime, we had started to collaborate with Tom McRae for the pilot episode of a television series. Tom and I really clicked, and that is why I asked him whether he would be willing to compose the soundtrack. I sensed he would get the story I wanted to tell. I gave him my storyboards, and tried to explain how I experienced those 14 emotions to the best of my ability. Tom was excited. The result blew me away. We have already exhibited the video installation a number of times accompanied by a live performance of the soundtrack by the Spectra Ensemble. The installation is a contemporary interpretation of the Way of the Cross we know from Catholicism, but stripped from any religious content.

BIBLICAL INSPIRATION

“Adam&Eve/Eve&Adam is one of my other video installations featuring Tom’s music. In one way or another, I keep referring back to the Bible in my video installations. That book remains a continuing source of inspiration. Nevertheless, the world of religion is not one I am familiar with. However, at the same time Christianity is part of Europe’s foundations, and is therefore part of my upbringing. The Bible is filled to the brim with horrific atrocities. Despite those atrocities, it has dictated the way we live our lives for centuries. I simply cannot wrap my head around that, and that is precisely why I am so intrigued by it. My video installation Adam&Eve/Eve&Adam is a muted video dealing with psychological abuse. It features Eve as the lesser being, the woman as a subordinate in the way it was dictated by the Church as an institution. In my video Adam becomes Eve and vice versa: no more gender roles, no more gender.”

Can you describe the process behind making a video? Do you start with some sketches or drawings? And will you then start to look for the right actors, dancers, and music? “I think in a series of images anyway, but I will write it out in full first. I write a draft of the screenplay, and turn that into a detailed script. Because I was trained as an animator, I can quickly sketch out the necessary storyboards. It is an effective way to explain what is in your head to the crew. When I am on set, I have a clear idea of what I want and how I want it. Indeed, I will then look for actors who can perform what is in my head. They don’t necessarily have to be professional actors, and can just as well be – and quite often are –dancers. When it comes to the music, I can also explain how I want something to feel. I have plenty of ideas about instrumentation, and about how grand or intimate I want it to sounds, but will then put all my faith in the composer. In the end, this is a team effort. As we work together as a team the most important thing is where I, being the artist, lead the team.”

When you paint, you get to see the result immediately. When you make a film, you can easily spend (half) a year on the process. It seems to be a very different way of working, in my opinion. “Painting is a highly individual process. When I paint in my studio, I am completely isolated from the rest of the world. Making videos takes a larger crew. When you paint, you do not require that much: paint, paper and canvas. Making a video installation can become very expensive very quickly – at least, it does when you make the videos I make. I need a complete setting: actors, costumes, cameramen, and lighting.”

In 2008, the Broelmuseum in Courtrai asked you to create a work of art commemorating Expo 58, the Brussels World Fair. “I decided to recreate a picture that was made around that time. Basically, I wanted to use contemporary techniques to make a copy of the original photograph. I chose a fashion photo, which I scanned and made into a 3D model, because I did not know the exact proportions. The only thing I did know for sure was the size of the floor tiles. That way, I was able to determine that the model was 1.63 meters tall, and how high up the camera had been. I found a model with a similar look, and had someone replicate the dress and the chair. I filmed the entire process, and at the exhibition, people could see the picture with a video playing alongside it. Someone from the Flanders Heritage Agency had noticed it, paid me a visit at my studio, and asked me to put on a solo exhibition in Ostend’s Ford Napoleon. I named that exhibit Holiday Greetings. That show took place in 2009. Soon after, I had a gallery in Amsterdam, and the year after that my work was shown in New York.”

THE BEAUTY IN DARKNESS

Your painted ‘portraits’, are never ‘just’ portraits. You will never look for what is obviously beautiful. I always sense a kind of ‘dark’ beauty. Horror and violence are always lurking in the background. “I cannot simply paint portraits of people without knowing their story. In fact, the story is the most important element to me. However, I don’t feel the need to tell the outside world all about it. In the Smiling Faces series, each image was given a title, as well as a number. They are portraits of criminals, but you don’t need to know that. When someone wants to appreciate the portraits, he or she does not require the full background story.”

I read that you usually paint what has just happened. Literal and figurative details are left out. Since you paint with diluted paint, your ‘drippings’ have become somewhat of a trademark. “I don’t want to simply paint lovely little pictures. I want to show emotion by actually removing every ounce of emotion from the image. I basically strip my work from all anecdotes. I want people to be moved by the work, without being able to pinpoint why. You will never come across a portrait of mine featuring any kind of action, nor will you see wind in my landscapes. My work focuses on that particular moment in life everyone is familiar with, that moment in which you either choose to resort to violence, or you don’t. My work deals with that split second in which you become either the perpetrator, or the victim. My landscapes all feature locations where something has happened, where I have stopped time. Every single house I paint is a crime scene. The same goes for my trees and landscapes. I don’t just paint pretty pictures. I don’t want to make the spectator feel ill at ease, but I do want to be uncomfortable myself while I’m painting. You could say I aim to reintroduce some kind of beauty into the image.”

Do you have a certain schedule in mind when you work in your studio? “Whenever my mind gets restless, I feel the urge to paint. Do I know what I’m about to paint? No, I don’t. I do know whether I’ll be creating a portrait or a landscape. I’m able to get in the zone at the drop of a hat. I enter the studio, turn on some music, crank up the volume and I’m there.”

It’s hardly a coincidence you prefer to use the colour black in your paintings. “That’s true because I nearly always paint shadows, rather than light. I have noticed how over the years my fascination for shadows is growing.”

Now, at age fifty, you have published your first big book, entitled Black is a Color. “In this day and age one is always able to self-publish, but in my case Bruno Devos from Stockmans Art Books crossed my path. It was Bruno who came up with the idea for a book. I’m still incredibly grateful he did. We’ve come a long way together this past year. I, for instance, wanted to use three types of paper, as I wanted to print text on a different kind of paper to the one we used for the exhibition photos; I wanted it to be flimsy, almost like the pages of a newspaper. The paintings were printed on matte drawing paper, whereas my videos were printed on a glossier kind of paper. The way we composed the book is rather exceptional as well. It’s a cinematic experience, which is an important part of my work. We deliberately omitted the works’ titles and measurements, because we did not want to block the natural flow.”

Klaus Verscheure, or life is great

For centuries past, artists have paid attention to death and mortality, as well as to suffering and the causes of mortality through jurisdiction and torture, war and cruelty. Just think of works by Annibale Carracci from Bologna, the French master engraver and draughtsman Jaccques Callot, or the series ‘Los desastres de la guerra’ by Francisco Goya. And then there is the glorification of martyrdom in the Christian tradition, which didn’t lack creativity and portrayed the most painful methods of torture.And, of course, there was and is suffering as punishment; a tried and tested remedy to keep people within society’s noms. A particularly striking example is the diptych ‘The Judgement of Cambyses’ by Gerard David, which shows in detail the corrupt judge being skinned alive.

Tree portraits

Klaus Verscheure’s work might appear to be unrelated to the above, yet there is a clear link. The trees that he paints are not simply the subject, due to their pictorial and picturesque meaning.The mountainous landscapes are not there for the landscape and the dwellings nor for their architectural pretensions; he paints them because of what is no longer there.Absence plays a major role. People once hung from the trees, usually after a lynching. The mountains are situated in the Bavarian Alps and experts will recognise the Obersalzberg.The Berghof, Hitler’s holiday home built on the foundations of Haus Wachenfeld, an idyllically situated chalet, was located in the Obersalzberg.The houses, whether they be spacious villas or modernistic or romantic-looking cottages, were each the scene of a crime.

Verscheure usually uses black paint; otherwise, he uses red or blue paint. It’s a deliberate choice. By limiting himself to quasi-monochrome, the artist creates a certain detachment for the viewer, while also distancing himself from reality in some way; this allows him to paint that reality. After all, we are swamped with colourful and moving images. Sometimes the silent image can intrigue more strongly.When we look at his tree portraits, because that’s what they are, portraits of those intentional trees, the hanged person is no longer present. Only the tree and part of the surroundings are revealed, rather like a neutral fact. If you are aware of the background of these paintings, an extra layer of meaning is added. Still, the tragic nature is somewhat present. Klaus Verscheure paints with very fluid paint.This produces trickles of paint that are not removed.They originate spontaneously, sometimes they’re even desired, and help de ne the image we see. If we also look at a few works of sandaled feet, it’s difficult for us not to associate them with victims of the lynching. Objectively speaking, they might just as well be the feet of someone who is relaxed, sitting on a tree branch, letting his feet dangle. That ambiguity is characteristic of Verscheure’s work; it is always present and everywhere. He never paints gratuitously.

Holiday snapshots

He made the series ‘Holiday Greetings’ when he was invited to exhibit in Fort Napoleon in Ostend about 10 years ago. It’s a series of large pen-and-ink drawings. They look like enlarged parts of a comic strip because, just like cartoons, they have a frame. They are not friendly drawings; a holiday atmosphere is hard to find. Everyone clearly sees that they are violent situations and refer to the inhuman conditions at Guantanamo Bay. The powerful, con dent outline ensures a clear image. The elevation of a detail, such as the bag over the head of a prisoner, contributes to the image’s impact on the viewer.

A second series is formed by black-and-white paintings that display victims’ heads close up. They are captivating images that are devoid of anecdotes. Because only black paint is used, they are given a kind of documentary value without any loss of artistic quality. The images can continue to move us; they are universal. What’s remarkable is that Klaus Verscheure also takes pictures of these small paintings, enlarges them significantly and presents them as independent work. It’s like a reverse movement, a return to the origins of the image that he used as a source of inspiration, but now with the artistic intervention of the painter who transcends the ephemeral.

The missing smile

Violence is a constant theme in the work of this quite placid artist. No matter how innocent his titles might sound, the viewer should always expect a threat of some kind.

The series ‘Smiling Faces’ shows the faces of criminals, based on mug-shots - photos the police take of miscreants. There are more artists who were and are inspired by such materials. Is it an attempt to get inside that criminal mind? To understand why some people perform merciless cruelties and shocking deeds? It’s not only about offenders of ordinary law; I also recognise a partial portrait of Hitler...

Some portraits are painted on large (150 x 185) pieces of paper; others are smaller and on canvas. On paper the paintings are framed like a comic strip; on canvas there is only the stretched fabric as a border. These are all elements that affect the spectator’s perception and manipulate his or her emotions.

Don’t expect Bosch-like faces dripping with evil. What makes this series of portraits so fascinating is that they look like regular people. They live in your neighbourhood; they’re people just like us. That recognisability, that normality probably makes the portraits even creepier.

Hands and feet

As well as portraits, hands and feet also seem to intrigue the artist. Those body parts can be very expressive. This intrigue forms a perfect match with a long tradition of artists. The most famous example is undoubtedly ‘La Cathédrale’ by Auguste Rodin, a work that is duplicated in all shapes and sizes because it moves everyone so powerfully.

I already mentioned the hanging feet when discussing tree portraits. There are also tied-up feet, crossed feet, dead feet, naked feet, and feet with shoes on. Hands in many manifestations: shackled, bound, cramped, male or female, even masturbating hands.

A detail of a person is used as a synecdoche; the reproduction of the detail allows you to fill in the rest of the situation. Your interpretation and meaning become part of the work. That’s always the case, but here the incentive to do so is intensified a bit.

The painter and filmmaker united

KlausVerscheure produced his masterly video installation entitled 14EMOTIONS/Allegoria Via Dolorosa in 2013.The work came about at the former power station in Zwevegem, where both the filming and the presentation took place. Verscheure links an emotion to each of the Stations of the Cross in the Christian tradition. He relied on several professional dancers and actors as well as numerous voluntary extras for the lm. Each fragment of motion that symbolises a Station lasts only 10 seconds, but it’s played back so slowly that each station lasts exactly 14 minutes. The Stations are played on vertical screens in a large space and are supported by a haunting composition by the singer- songwriter Tom McRae, performed by the Spectra Ensemble.

Christ’s figure is played by a black dancer in the video; the figures of Mary and Mary Magdalene were also chosen with care. It’s not coincidental that the actors and extras wear modern clothing. The filmmaker went to work like a painter, deriving inspiration from the long tradition of Western painting. Chiaroscuro, which was so masterfully employed by Caravaggio and Rembrandt, is used with great care during filming; it strongly determines the atmosphere. The long, drawn-out deceleration of the images enables the spectator to absorb the images and to sample their extreme beauty.

Concerning the content, all religious connotation has been excised from the Stations of the Cross and they can appeal to everyone. But, religious or not, we come from a Christian tradition and the mere presence of the cross is enough to establish a link to the Bible story. The emotions portrayed are contempt, rage, compassion, gratitude, disbelief, powerlessness, pride, fear, resignation, sadness, consolation, desolation, bewilderment and rebellion.

Those familiar with video art will not be able to dispute some connotation with the work of the American video artist Bill Viola. Klaus Verscheure may have been inspired by the working method of this master, but he is able to realise his production in a very personal way and from a sincere inspiration. He gives it a special aesthetic and human meaning that will not leave the spectator feeling unmoved.

Adam and Eve

The artist manages the camera very professionally; he’s obviously inspired by Biblical themes. His production ‘Adam & Eve / Eve & Adam’ is a clear example of this. A stylishly-dressed man and woman calmly undress until they are completely naked. Then both figures start to get dressed again, but it turns out that the clothes have been swapped. The issue of sex and gender is artfully addressed in a very simple, but very serene way, on two vertical video screens supported by a composition for two cellos, again a collaboration with Tom McRae.

Verscheure’s installations link the present with the past. He addresses us through our roots. He criticises without being polemical. He denounces the sense of guilt a number of religions have imposed on us, and lets us look at ourselves and the violent society we live in. He does this simply by creating beauty. He does that when painting, he does that as a lm-maker and he does that fantastically.

Daan Rau

Text by Tom McCrae

Klaus sees light and line in the same way I hear rhythm and melody. When he asked me several years ago if I wanted to collaborate on a video installation piece called Fourteen Emotions I wasn't completely sure how it would work. Such a complex and sensitive subject matter needed not only a clear vision but also careful handling. I needn't have worried. From the first minute he described it to me I knew it would both work and be beautiful, but that above all it would also be emotionally powerful.

This is an element that runs through all his work. The video pieces we have collaborated on, as well as his stunning paintings. There is always a reason behind the art, always a mind at work and a story to tell, even if it's not at obvious at first glance. And those are undoubtedly good and necessary foundations on which to base any art, but none of his work would have the emotional impact it has if he wasn't also a master of conveying beauty. Even beauty in horrific subjects.

Being able to switch between mediums and not lose that intensity has always impressed me about Klaus. Making an audience look at a slow moving image as if it were a canvas demands tremendous skill, so that their attention is rewarded. Klaus is a generous artist in this respect. The closer you look, the more you see. There is nuance in every detail. His video installations, like his paintings, demand time to slow down, demand the viewer to look again. Think again. Feel again.

It's this core of humanity in his work, his being able to recognise, capture and convey the emotional power of a subject, be it portraiture, landscape or video that lies at the heart of his work. It's an over used word: heart. As a writer of simple songs I've probably used it one too many times. But it's an appropriate word in this instance. Klaus's art can be challenging, narrative, intriguing, certainly always beautiful, but more than anything you can hear and feel the beating heart behind every piece. For my part, Klaus makes my job of writing the music easy. When it comes down to it, that's the only rhythm every musician is composing to, that pulse, that energy, that beating heart.